McCaskill: GM engineer lied about deadly ignition switch

General Motors CEO Mary Barra testifies on Capitol Hill on April 1.

WASHINGTON - General Motors CEO Mary Barra marched up Capitol Hill on Wednesday for a second day of testimony and questioning about the widespread safety recall of millions of vehicles involving a defect linked to 13 deaths and 31 crashes.

Barra withstood a barrage of questions Tuesday from the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee on who knew about faulty ignition switches and when they knew it.

The Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Insurance took its turn Wednesday, and subcomittee Chairwoman Claire McCaskill pulled no punches. She pointed to a GM engineer's deposition in a case involving a Chevy Cobalt crash when he said he didn't know about a 2006 design change to fix the switch.

"He lied," McCaskill, D-Mo., said of the testimony of engineer Ray DeGiorgio. "He said he didn't know anything about it." McCaskill said GM documents showed DeGiorgio signed off on a design change in April 2006. She said "a culture of cover up ... allowed an engineer at General Motors to lie under oath."

GM officials said an investigation last year detected the change in the switch design for the first time.

GM has recalled more than 2.5 million Chevrolet Cobalts, Saturn Ions and similar vehicles worldwide due to the problem. Barra, in her opening statement to the Senate panel, reiterated positions she took before the House panel Tuesday. She said GM was taking responsibility for its mistakes, was investigating how they happened and was forming a compensation plan for those who affected by the flawed switch.

She tried to explain how the faulty switch could have been allowed to continue in use even though problems were known.

"The culture of the company at that time was more of a cost culture focus," Barra says about GM before its bankruptcy reorganization in 2009.

Barra took heat on Tuesday when she would not promise to share the results of an internal investigation of the switch snafu being handled to former federal prosecutor Anton Valukas. She tried to explain her hesitancy Wednesday, saying she was concerned about "competitiveness and privacy of employees."

"Anything remotely related to vehicle safety will be readily shared in a transparent process," she assured the Senate panel.

Several senators have already said GM should order the vehicles parked until there are replacement parts and address concerns of people who may have been affected.

Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Edward Markey, D-Mass., have proposed legislation that would require tougher reporting standards for automakers in providing information to federal regulators. Blumenthal has also asked the Justice Department to force GM to set up a victims fund to pay people who may have lost loved ones or otherwise been affected by the recalled vehicles.

"My hope is that GM's first step shows that it is serious about facing its moral responsibility, and that it will be followed by much bigger, necessary steps," Blumenthal said after Barra told the House panel about Feinberg's hiring.

"Picking an expert is a positive sign but no substitute for real action - and full, fair compensation for victims," Blumenthal said. But he added. "I welcome the indication that GM is taking seriously their obligation to compensate innocent victims of concealed defects - especially in light of the blanket shield from legal responsibility they were afforded by their 2009 bankruptcy proceeding."

If Senate members want more information about why it took GM so long to initiate the recall, however, they could be frustrated by Barra's testimony.

On Tuesday, she told the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee that decisions made to not address a defective ignition switch - a condition the company now knows can result in air bags not deploying in the event of a crash in some cases - do not represent the "customer culture" of the new, post- bankruptcy GM. But she said she could not tell why those decisions were made the way they were.

She said - repeatedly - that she is awaiting the results of an internal investigation being conducted by former U.S. attorney Anton Valukas to determine how GM failed to address the defect despite indications going back to 2001 and preproduction of the Ion that there were ignition switch issues.

Barra also told the House panel that she was hiring noted compensation expert Kenneth Feinberg to help the company determine how to respond to consumer claims from which GM may enjoy bankruptcy protection but could waive.

David Friedman, acting head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, is also scheduled to testify Wednesday, as is Calvin Scovell, the inspector general for the U.S. Transportation Department. Scovell is expected to discuss past audits that found that NHTSA needed stronger efforts to track and react to customer complaints.

While some of the recommendations made in a 2011 audit were accepted, Scovell said in his prepared testimony that "one recommendation remains outstanding - conducting a workforce assessment for determining the number and most effective mix of staff needed."